Tall Lives

R.G. Moyles is a professor of English at the University of Alberta,
co-author of Imperial Dreams and Colonial Realities: British Views of
Canada, 1880-1914, and co-editor of The Collected Works of E.J. Pratt.

Not since John Barth’s Sot-Weed Factor has there been such a wonderful
burlesque-cum-satire based on twinship. Joined by the big toe at birth
but separated immediately by their veterinarian father, Del and Frank
Baal live separate but symbiotic lives: Del, a first-class football
referee, lives in a middle-class Vancouver neighborhood with a seemingly
happy marriage; Frank, an ocean scavenger, is nearly always drunk,
steals whatever he can lay his hands on, and writes punk-poetry. They
represent, in a way, the twinship of the seeming opposites in our
society; and when they begin to exchange lives (both physically and
spiritually), this novel becomes as happy and sad as any great novel
ever written.

It is not only the plot, however, that warrants praise. Equally
impressive are Gaston’s brilliant (if sometimes funky) imagination,
his startling insights into the human soul, his magnificent poetic
prose, and his satiric wit. Read this novel to enjoy Gaston’s caustic
(but timely) treatment of football refereeing, for his hilarious
depiction of a gung-ho American detective entangled in Canadian
bureaucracy, for his revealing description of erotic dancing, for the
amazing existential aphorisms of Felix d’Amboise (“The perfect
Eternalist is a pretty blonde girl who, knowing she is dying of
lymphatic cancer, takes a smiling bite out of a garlicky kosher
dill”), or for his outrageous neo-punk poetry. These, and many more,
are the delightful and insightful treats offered by Gaston—surely one
of the most original, talented, and powerful novelists now writing in
Canada.